Building a workflow that capitalizes on variable information is tricky. Fortunately, many technologies exist to mine, produce, disseminate, and measure the results of data. Whether your business is purely looking to tap into personalized print or sees greater opportunity in a more robust, multi-channel approach, there’s a solution and a price point for virtually every VI producer demographic.

In the last issue, DPS magazine discussed the benefits of personalization. The following marketplace overview provides key information on some of the leading vendors and available technology.

Bitstream’s Pageflex Persona Cross Media Suite is a desktop solution for creating targeted print and email communications. It features output drivers for EPS, HTML, PostScript, PDF, and other data formats, with optional drivers for producing PPML, VDX, VIPP, VPS, and JLYT streams. The solution enables creative and marketing professionals to import layouts from Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress and to draw data from any digital asset management system or open database connectivity-compliant database—from multiple sources, if needed.

Persona Cross Media Suite is based on Pageflex core technology, including a robust XML composition engine, designed specifically for variable data composition. Patented flex technology enables a print document layout to automatically resize items on the page based on the amount of custom content added.

DirectSmile offers three primary variable data printing (VDP) solutions. DirectSmile VDP Studio, $4,995, is a desktop-class VDP and image-personalization technology complemented by DirectSmile Online to facilitate a Web-to-print workflow and DirectSmile Cross Media for electronic communications and personalized URL (pURL) creation.

The new DirectSmile VDP Pro, $9,995, builds upon Studio, but offers twice the processing speed and additional features for more complex VDP workflows.

DirectSmile’s top-tier VDP solution, DirectSmile VDP Production Editor, is a server-class product. A $14,995 package includes four production-server licenses and two workstation licenses.

Edward Ickowski, GM, sales and business development, DirectSmile, estimates that 80 percent of the company’s customers are professional print suppliers.

“In contrast to other VDP solutions, all DirectSmile products come with a powerful image-personalization tool, which integrates into the VDP workflow and allows unique creative possibilities for the design of image templates,” Ickowski notes.

“When you go beyond simple text personalization, there is still great potential for refined ways to tailor content and layouts of direct mail pieces to recipients,” he adds. “This includes personalized images and individual layouts, as well as customer-specific messages, prices, and contact channels. This is the first step toward true one-to-one marketing. The future lies in a combination of personalized print and Web, as the Internet provides the perfect platform to maintain customer dialog initiated with a personalized print mailer. And, at the same time, the Web allows for response tracking and customer feedback that enables the user to follow up with more targeted communication.”

Eastman Kodak Company’s KODAK DARWIN is a plug-in to Adobe InDesign. It manages variable data elements and business logic, outputting to a VDP data stream, according to Benny Shimshoni, director, marketing and strategy, Kodak’s Print On-Demand Solutions Group.

“KODAK DARWIN provides a variety of features that support database management, rules setup, basic barcode additions, and functions,” Shimshoni explains. “The Pro option supports more advanced barcodes and functions, enables personalized images and charts, and allows scripting.”

The KODAK DARWIN Web Composition Solution complements the desktop authoring tool by adding Web-to-print functionality. KODAK DARWIN’s desktop-level software is approximately $3,000 U.S. For more sophisticated variable data requirements the KODAK DARWIN Pro solution is available for approximately $8,000 U.S.

DARWIN is only one solution that Kodak develops to support variable data workflows. “We wanted to provide tools for marketers to manage, sort, and cleanse data. We also wanted to help service providers become better marketing service providers with our technologies,” explains Jon Bracken, VP, marketing, Kodak’s Enterprise Solutions Group. “So a supplier can say, ‘Give us your customer data, and we will help you produce increasingly targeted marketing campaigns—both in print and electronically.’”

In addition to the DARWIN solutions, Kodak offers its INSITE suite of technologies, which are used to facilitate variable information communications. “We have another group of customers who developed an INSITE storefront, where their customers access templates for variable data collateral like direct marketing and postcards,” says Bracken.

Kodak recently introduced INSITE Campaign Manager. “We wanted to give both marketers and service providers a tool that enable them to slice and dice data more effectively. Now they can see, visually, what offer had the greatest return in what segment and refine that targeting, messaging, and offering to generate better response rates in the future,” Bracken explains.

Elixir Technologies Corporation’s Opus is a variable data publishing solution. The company claims that customers need no prior programming experience to capitalize on its personalization capabilities. Working in a Microsoft Windows environment, users define rules for dynamic content creation. Messages, images, charts, and graphs are customized for the recipient. For small- to mid-sized organizations, the developer recommends Opus SMB. The more robust Opus is better suited to larger enterprises generating high volumes of personalized content.

EMC Document Sciences’ xPression 3 Suite is based on client-server architecture, which enables the creation of dynamic content. The xPRS server comprises publishing and infrastructure components, including xAssemble, the rules engine; xPublish, the document composition engine; and xBatch for processing high-volume batches of documents.

xPression 3 Suite users can choose from a number of document design clients, including plug-ins for Adobe InDesign and Dreamweaver as well as Microsoft Word.

GLUON, Inc.’s HyperPublishing System (HPS) allows users to create customized, design-rich documents that are dynamically changed or created on-the-fly using a Web browser or through full automation. The system leverages its art rendering engine to produce PDF, EPS, QXP, JPEG, PNG, Flash, and other file formats. With HPS users define which parts of a publication are dynamic or editable, ensuring brand integrity. Online interactive editing allows form-based set up and interaction.

GMC Software Technology’s PrintNet Communications Suite is used to create both print and electronic documents.

PrintNet is a document composition solution within the suite that enables the variability of objects, including color, text, images, and graphs. The solution is also able to generate pURLs and targeted email campaigns.

PortalBuilder is a dedicated module that creates storefront capabilities and supports a Web-to-print workflow.

Components of GMC PrintNet Communications Suite start at $15,000 U.S., but most cases require a unique configuration to address all VDP production and workflow requirements.

HP Exstream’s software platform is based on an open architecture and enables the creation and development of high-volume, personalized, on demand, and interactive documents.

“We refer to document composition as Enterprise Document Automation (EDA),” explains Scott Draeger, EDP senior product manager, HP Exstream, Hewlett-Packard (HP). “EDA transforms content into engaging, relevant, and timely communications for customers. It automates the creation and generation of all forms of communications—from high-volume, batch-processed statements and invoices to ad hoc correspondence to personalized marketing offers.”

HP Exstream supports and creates at least 19 print and electronic data streams, including PDF, PostScript, PPML, VIPP, VPS, HTML, and XML. The solution enables dynamic variable images, including more than 30 image formats, such as JPEG, TIFF, and BMP.

HP Exstream also enables a Web-to-print workflow and Exstream Editor provides interactive editing, allowing users to personalize documents in real time. And, according to Draeger, “HP Exstream is capable of generating customized, clickable URLs and pURLs. For example, PDFs created by Exstream have embedded pURLs, which are customized for each person receiving a PDF. The pURLs direct recipients to Web pages that are created outside of Exstream in professional Web page creation software.”

InterlinkONE’s ilinkONE v8.5 system is available as a software as a service model (SaaS), with no start-up fee and monthly fees starting at less than $3,000 a month; or as an in-house install, which typically runs an in-plant approximately $150,000, according to John Foley, president/CEO, interlinkONE.

Foley estimates that 90 percent of the customers using ilinkONE represent print and fulfillment service suppliers, while the balance represents an enterprise customer base.

ilinkONE’s integrated solution eliminates the need for separate applications. “Not only can users produce variable print and electronic files, but with the integrated campaign setup tools they can measure the results through one system from all different media,” Foley explains.

Lytrod Software’s GraphicArts VI Designer is a variable data layout tool created for graphic arts applications. It allows users to work within familiar design applications while capitalizing on variable capabilities through conditional and page-level logic. Personalized pages are then output to Xerox VIPP. The application has a per-license price of $3,950, plus an annual maintenance fee of $550.